PHI 208 Week 5 DQ 1 The Meaning of Life

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The Meaning of Life
Chapter 5 is focused on the meaning of human life. Present your view on the ultimate meaning of life. Be sure to back up your view with logical reasoning and as much evidence as you can. What gives human life meaning? How do you know? How should one act in the world once one realizes this meaning? Connect your ideas on the essential meaning of life to the views of at least one philosopher. This philosopher can be someone whom we studied or can come from an outside source. You might connect your ideas in a harmonious or contradictory way. Utilize the academic resources aligned with this course to find a philosopher that coincides with or contradicts your own ideas.

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Focus of the Final Paper
Scenario:
You are an ethnographic researcher writing a case study for a popular organizational behavior research journal. Your purpose is to identify key problems related to business ethics in a Not-for-Profit and For- Profit organization. The personal perspective of the researcher is clearly discussed in the research focus. Hence, your analysis will compare three ethical perspectives: your ethical perspective, one Not-for-Profit ethical perspective, and one For-Profit ethical perspective and draw comparisons across an array of social conditions. Your objective: to evaluate differences and similarities in ethical perspectives between the three entities as a function of subjects taken from the chapters in your course text. Follow these steps to help form your case study:

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New Stock Opportunity or Exposure. A friend is excited about a new stock opportunity with a medical company whose products could sell well around the world; having reviewed some of the stories in Chapter 10, you are no longer certain about the benefits that companies say will emerge from their products and you are concerned that the company’s history includes using animals and vulnerable people in experiments.

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Federal Domain. The Federal government manages millions of acres of forest land across the country, but there are increasing pressures on the agencies to permit varying levels of commercial access to the timber, other resources, and the water flows. Should the government have an absolute prohibition on commercial access or should there be a working compromise with companies?
From your ethical perspective, should government have an absolute prohibition on commercial access or should there be a working compromise with companies?

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Portfolio Analysis. Reviewing the investments in your portfolio, you realize that the carbon footprint connected to your investments is relatively large, but your oil company stock also pays for the family holidays each year. The company’s website also says that it uses a high proportion of its profits to invest in green and renewable fuels of the future. Do you keep the stock or sell? Why? What principles did you apply in making this decision? Also, how does one check the credibility of the company and its website?
Consider the ethical perspective of a particular group to which you currently belong or previously belonged, would the group keep or sell the stock? Why?

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Power Station Cost-Benefit Analysis. A power station is planned in your local area and you have been requested to submit a primary cost-benefit analysis of the potential economic and environmental impact that the station could have. Prepare a list of pros and cons and a preliminary judgment on whether it should go ahead.
If a particular group to which you currently belong, or previously belonged, were to throw-out the list of pros and cons and rely on ethical predisposition of the business, what would be the preliminary judgment?

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Child Labor. Child labor is endemic in the poorer countries of the world, and for many children it is seen as way of keeping their families out of poverty. Critics point out that if the governments were to invest more in educating children, they could be more productive and create more wealth for their nation when they are older. In the meantime, multinational enterprises often secure suppliers who use children.
In your opinion, what is the best way to reduce child labor for multinational corporations? How is the phenomenon of child labor viewed from your ethical perspective? Given the ethical perspective of a particular group to which you currently belong, or previously belonged, how would child labor be viewed?

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Managerial Incentives. Henry Manne believed that companies cannot become too incompetent or corrupt, as eventually their share price would fall and they could be taken over by another firm that would get rid of incompetent management. Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means believed that company managers have an incentive to feather their own nests and to undermine shareholder wealth.
Can elements or parts of these theoretical perspectives have governmental applications? If so, which theory do you think best describes the segment of American government known as the Congress and the Senate? Explain your answer.

c. In these journals, the research and information is either reviewed by an editorial team (such as for the Academy of Management Review) or a group of peers (such as in many journals you find through the Ashford Online Library). For information regarding

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Unintentional Discrimination. Unintentional discrimination occurs when a company’s policies uncritically reflect prejudicial stereotypes yet do not involve overt racial prejudices of its managers or executives. Does legislation to verify voter identification fall under the domain of unintentional or intentional discrimination? Explain your views.
Also, how does your personal ethical perspective on discrimination- intentional or unintentional- compare to the culture of a particular group to which you currently belong, or previously belonged?

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Puffery and Deception. A critical point of distinction between deceptive advertising and mere puffery is whether a claim is a measurable statement of fact.
a. Think of some contemporary examples of each and explain why they are or are not measurable statements of fact.
b. When you notice deceptive advertising or puffery, how does your sense of personal ethical perspectives and values affect the way you make decisions about those advertised goods and services?
c. How does the ethical program of a particular group to which you currently belong, or previously belonged, treat the topic of misrepresentation or exaggeration of company goods and service?

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Self-Interest or Community Interest. As read in Chapter 2 of the course text, Adam Smith argued that self-interest is a critical element in a society’s economic development. Karl Marx, by contrast, argued that society functions better when each of us is more community oriented.
Pretend you are either Adam Smith or Karl Marx, and explain economic recession from these perspectives.
a. Discuss when greed and selfishness in businesses go too far and become a hazard to society.

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Psychological Egoism. After reviewing Chapter 1 in your textbook and watching “Virtue Ethics,” find a contemporary article showing how the theory of psychological egoism in a corporation resulted in an ethical dilemma.
a. Is there a way that the decision-making process within a large corporation can overcome this fact of human selfishness?
b. What would be a solution in this scenario?
c. How does the theory of psychological egoism fit within your personal body of ethics and values?
d. How does the theory of psychological egoism fit within the ethical structure of the company or organization you work for now or have worked for in the past?

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The Meaning of Life
Chapter 5 is focused on the meaning of human life. Present your view on the ultimate meaning of life. Be sure to back up your view with logical reasoning and as much evidence as you can. What gives human life meaning? How do you know? How should one act in the world once one realizes this meaning? Connect your ideas on the essential meaning of life to the views of at least one philosopher. This philosopher can be someone whom we studied or can come from an outside source. You might connect your ideas in a harmonious or contradictory way. Utilize the academic resources aligned with this course to find a philosopher that coincides with or contradicts your own ideas.

For more course tutorials visit
www.phi208.com
The Meaning of Life
Chapter 5 is focused on the meaning of human life. Present your view on the ultimate meaning of life. Be sure to back up your view with logical reasoning and as much evidence as you can. What gives human life meaning? How do you know? How should one act in the world once one realizes this meaning? Connect your ideas on the essential meaning of life to the views of at least one philosopher. This philosopher can be someone whom we studied or can come from an outside source. You might connect your ideas in a harmonious or contradictory way. Utilize the academic resources aligned with this course to find a philosopher that coincides with or contradicts your own ideas.

For more course tutorials visit
www.phi208.com
The Turing Test
Present three specific questions that you would ask in the Turing Test to determine if something is real or artificial intelligence. Explain why you think these questions would be the type to reveal the computer to be a computer? Why would these responses have to be given by a human being? (If you don't think there are such questions, explain how the three questions you chose would fail to determine which one of the respondents was a computer and which was an actual human.)